Finalizing Your Order

To finalize on Amazon.jp, simply switch to English and follow all the steps.

If you used Tenso as your address, this will definitely help you: http://www.tenso.com/en/guide/buy/address.html

Furthermore, if you’re logged in, it will also let you know EXACTLY what you should enter.

So log in and go that page to get your address and how to enter it.

To finalize your order on Rakuten, I recommend using this trick to view non-globally available products on an English page:

Using the example we had, the Adidas product, this is the Rakuten Japan url:

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/auc-aspo/oss-ajp-vu978-z52635/

But that is all Japanese and for us who can’t even read Japanese, we have to change that url to Rakuten Global with this method:

auc-aspo is the shop name

oss-ajp-vu978-z52635 is the product name in this shop

so we replace them accordingly, like this formula:

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/<shopname>/item/<productname>/

and we get this:

http://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-aspo/item/oss-ajp-vu978-z52635/

tada! same product page but in English!

Now click add to cart and if the product is not being shipped globally, you have to check Use forwarding service and then click Add to cart.

Once all products are added this way, log in and complete your order!

Most shops will send you the domestic or international shipping code after shipping the item.

If you used a Forwarding Service, you will get a notification once your package reaches their warehouse and depending on the service you will need to pay for your package’s international shipping and then your package will finally make its final journey to your house!

Any questions, comments or anything I missed, make sure you comment to let me know!

Do you need Package Forwarding? (Yes, you probably do.)

Package forwarding, proxy address, Japanese address, proxy shopping etc. are strange words or rather some weird mumbo jumbo for the newcomer in the universe of Japanese product ordering from outside Japan.

Simply put, Japanese sellers usually don’t care that you desperately want their product to be shipped overseas.
They don’t want the extra hassle.

Most of them don’t ship to international addresses – and don’t bother begging (I tried… twice.) because everything they do is based on strict regulations which are either personal, corporate or based on their contract with Rakuten or Amazon.

If you noticed, most of them don’t ship overseas… but a select few in comparison to the vast majority who don’t… actually do ship internationally! Yes! Finally a win for us international buyers!

But… of course there is a but. Those Rakuten sellers who sell with the direct international shipping option are usually those same greedy sellers who add tons of profit on top of the usual retail price. Remember eBay? Think something just slightly cheaper but still expensive in comparison to the non-inflated price.

I’ve seen products going for $120 on eBay, $105 on Rakuten International sellers (those who ship to your address directly) and $65 on domestic Rakuten sellers (those who just ship to Japanese addresses).

The difference is obvious, the less hassle you go through the more you pay. If you’re a bargain hunter though – 90% of the time – package forwarding is your best option. Why? You get the $65 price (plus around $0-$5 for domestic shipping) and will pay something around $15-$50 for regular sized packages, which in fact means you will be paying no shipping fees compared to the other options. You want more reasons to be convinced to use package forwarding? The average parcel costs $25 to ship internationally to common destinations such as Europe and North America. Even more reasons? Top package forwarding companies such as Tenso sometimes even have campaigns which slash that amount greatly. Your $65 product could be yours with a final total price of $83 – much better than the estimated $150+ on eBay, eh?

Top package forwarding companies and their features:

#1 – Tenso – www.tenso.com
Simply the best in package forwarding from Japan to other countries!

• No membership fees. Free Japanese address supplied on registration.
• Constantly gets promotions on Rakuten that help you save on the shipping prices.
• Allows you to easily consolidate multiple packages – although they charge you for that as well.
• Allows you to set the value and insurance availability on each item in your package.
• While very fast and efficient on weekdays, currently does not work at all on the weekends.
• Overall best in terms of ease of use, customer support, working hours, delivery time, insurance, promotions, packaging, handling and shipping fees.

#2 – Tenso Japan – www.jshoppers.com
The cheapest in package forwarding from Japan to other countries!

• No membership fees. Free Japanese address supplied on registration.
• The cheapest service fee, insurance fee and shipping fees.
• Constantly holds promotions that make the total fee even cheaper.
• Very efficient and fast service.

#3 – White Rabbit Japan – www.whiterabbitexpress.com

• No membership fees. Free Japanese address supplied on registration.
• Service fees given in US Dollars as opposed to all other services charging you in Yen.
• A much simpler website layout than other services and perfect English used on the website.
• Staff’s name and quick bio has been put on the website as the website tries to be as friendly as possible with clients.
• Testimonials page includes satisfied users’ testimonials; including some high profile client testimonials.

#4 – DankeDanke – www.dankedanke.com

• Reliable

#5 – From Japan – www.fromjapan.co.jp

• Dedicated Service

#6 – JapantoDoor – www.japantodoor.com

#7 – BridGe.jpn – www.brdige.jpn.com

#8 – Big in Japan– www.biginjap.com

#9 – OPAS – www.opas.com

#10 – MailBox1 – www.mailbox1.jp

Even if you think your desired product might be available on Rakuten Global for cheap, it doesn’t hurt to have more options by registering at one on the list which has free registration.

After signing up with one of these services, you’re ready to finalize your order. Up next!

Choosing The Right Model and Shipping Method

As awesome and accurate as the Japanese sellers usually are, they sometimes name products in such a way that it can be confused with some others. Let’s say you’re buying an Adidas sports shoe which is from the 2013 Spring collection but since the colorway is close to that of the same series’ 2011 version, you end up accidentally buying the old one – and you congratulate yourself for getting a deal because the one you bought was much cheaper than the others, being 2 years older than the other model of course!

Many sellers on Rakuten mark their products which are time-sensitive with the year and season info, e.g. for 2012 Fall / Winter collection of the series they write 12fw and for 2013 Spring / Summer season of the model they write 13ss as one of the features of the product.

So make sure after you have found the model name, to view different sellers’ product pages to:

-Make sure the product model’s English or international name is the same as the one you’re after

-Get a better look at the product – some sellers add the standard images and some add their own.

-Take a look at the reviews to see if the product is actually any good; Japanese review writers are usually very helpful in finding out the advantages and disadvantages of a product – and yes we are talking about those unlisted by the manufacturer or the seller.

Next up, copy and paste your model number or model name in Amazon.co.jp to see if they actually sell it there and if yes, is it any cheaper. It usually isn’t cheaper in Amazon.co.jp – why? I don’t know but I assume Amazon charges sellers a lot more than Rakuten and that’s why either greedy sellers or Rakuten outcasts choose it thus Amazon.co.jp usually has higher price tags for the same product.  Amazon’s advantage over Rakuten? More user-friendly ordering system that has English integrated in it and shows you all the options needed for ordering in English (if you choose English of course).

After checking out the probably higher prices on Amazon.co.jp (but who knows, you might find a rare deal!), it’s time to hit Google.

Search something like:
<Your product model name or model number> -Rakuten -Rakuten.co.jp  -Amazon  -Amazon.co.jp

This would get you the other websites that sell your desired product – outside Rakuten and Amazon.

Again, I doubt you’ll find a better deal than Rakuten in other websites but it’s worth a try.

Since other websites usually don’t have English, I recommend using Google Translate for viewing them.

By now you should have a good idea about which shop – which website sells your desired product the cheapest.

…and don’t forget to take in to account the domestic shipping!

Here’s how:

On Amazon.jp:

By selecting the English language on Amazon.jp, it’s much, much easier to know the shipping and total price before even ordering!

On Rakuten:

As you can see the highlighted text, near where the product price is given in the Japanese product page,  the store will also let you know if the shipping is charged separately, is inclusive or shipping is free for orders that for example pass 10,000 Yen.

You should copy that line, put it into Google Translate and find out the shipping price!

If the shipping is free, you’re good to go. if not, shipping starts anywhere from 450 Yen to 650 for small shipments. Bigger shipments vary in prices.

Next, we will actually order that juicy Japanese-only product!

Finding The Product You Want

First up in your search to get an awesome Japanese-only product would be to know if the product you wish to buy exists in Japan or not.It could be out of stock, not yet available or perhaps was never available in the first place.

What do you want it to be? In stock and ready to ship!

The most effective and global searching tool to find out if your item exists or not is Rakuten Japan’s search box! (And NOT the Rakuten Global search)

Why? Because it searches the whole database of the Rakuten shops, while the Rakuten Global search only searches the shops that ship worldwide.

Go to http://search.rakuten.co.jp/

Search the product brand and model name/number combination.

See if you get a result and if the results are what you expected to see (At times I’ve searched for Soccer shoes and got hammers and other tools as a search result because of similar model names!).

Did you find the product you wanted to find? If yes, next up is to order the prices to be ascending (Oh yeah, we want cheaper options!)

As you can see in the screenshot, you have to choose the second option from the dropdown.The search will now show cheaper prices on top.

But if you haven’t entered an exact model – like we have done in the screenshot! – this will also make you see other stuff that you didn’t mean to search.

We want to filter out only the product we want to see.So when the page comes up with the ascending prices, I find the ones I really wanted to search and go to the product page.

Next, I find the model name/number and copy it and then search it in the box.

Each brand has its own model number method.

In each category, it’s going to vary greatly but below I explain some common Sports companies’ modeling methods:

Adidas starts with a letter and has 5 numbers after it. Both the model and color are explained in the 6 digit model.

Nike uses a different method in which there’s usually a string of numbers representing the model itself and a dash separating it from 3 numbers that represent the color code.

Puma is similar to Nike but its color codes usually start with 01 (01 being the first color and so on), as opposed to Nike using the color codes as an identification, Puma usually uses them as the order of the colors released in that model.

Lotto, uses a similar method to Adidas, except there are only 4 numbers and it’s 5 digits in total.

These are of course sports brands and in every category you’re going to have to find out the model numbering method.

Moving on, now I search for that code I copied from the product I had found and then sort it as ascending prices again.

The one I had found seemed pretty cheap at 470 Yen, but can I find cheaper?

Yes! I found another shop selling it at 460 Yen!
10 Yen is nothing but trust me I’ve saved up to 9,000 Yen on some purchases using this method.

Continue on to see how you should proceed with your order!

So what’s this tutorial about?

It’s not a secret anymore that for some reason – I haven’t figured it out myself yet – some of the most awesome and much needed products in the world are only released in the Japanese market.

The Japanese only products include but are not limited to: cheap do it yourself body hair removal products, rice cookers with the latest technology, well designed golf clubs, Football (Soccer) shoes with custom fit, extra wide or extra color ways, Anime merchandise that you just have to have, outrageously small or big versions of products you usually buy, A rare or limited edition color way in a product you already enjoy, household and health & wellbeing products and much more. Ever had a shoe that you loved but was too narrow or wide for you? If it’s a top brand, they probably have made a special narrow or wide version only for Japan! Yes, I’m talking about Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lotto, Diadora, Mizuno, and Asics brands – the last two actually being Japanese brands themselves. They make the same shoe but with a more custom fit only for Japan. All those I just said plus many more, know that the Japanese market is used to these special limited edition products and release them every year.

So what’s the catch? You can only find these in Japan and getting stuff from Japan can sometimes be hard as either the item you’re looking for might be sold for 3 times the actual price on eBay by ‘resellers’ who take advantage of the vast eBay market and need for these products for their own humongous profit or the fact that the shops that sell your desired product do not deliver internationally themselves; thus making you get back to the aforementioned greedy resellers.

Why are they greedy resellers? It’s because they sell a product priced at $100 for $320 on eBay knowing that it will sell no matter what. If you take a look at their eBay page you will see that customers usually were satisfied with the quality but mentioned that the price was too much for the product. It indeed is.
I’m going to show you how to get what you want with the actual non-inflated market price! Neat, huh?

Continue on to see how!

Which is the worst. Improvements a must, an on the ball training is scheduled for tomorrow.

Colorful Bubbles in High Definition

Original wallpaper!

Download JPEG (Image) here

Download PSD (Full Package) here

Tomorrow’s going to be 2012 and I got news… news of there being less news from now on!

Updates on the blog will no longer be daily from now on and will only happen when there’s significant news.

And this time the fatigue is more on the leg muscles rather than being spread all over the body.

As needed, it was done today and it was a bit harder than expected.